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Near-empty skyscrapers and rising vacancy rates are pressuring landlords to offer big incentives – such as a year of free rent or money for renovations – to keep a shrinking number of tenants in their downtown Calgary towers.

The retail vacancy in the core business districts of Calgary can largely be attributed to increased office vacancy rates as well as a general slowdown in our oil-based economy here,” said Nathaniel Sterzik, leasing and sales associate for Barclay Street Real Estate, which just released its mid-year retail market analysis for the city.

Total commercial real estate investments in the city plunged $1.1 billion from 2014 to 2015, ac-cording to research by Barclay Street Real Estate, which tallied total dollar volume last year at $1.5 billion.

A new report says Calgary’s downtown offices got a bit emptier in the first three months of the year as vacancies rose 2.2 percentage points from last quarter. The Barclay Street Real Estate Ltd. report says vacancies rose to 19.5 per cent as about 938,000 more square feet were on the market. It said by 2018 the vacancy rate could be close to 24 per cent.

A new report by Barclay Street Real Estate Ltd. says vacancy in the retail market has risen from 2.7 per cent at the end of 2015 to three per cent in the first quarter of 2016. It says 1.2 million square feet of space is now available, up 116,000 square feet since the fourth quarter of 2015.

Discounted lease rates available for even Class A office space but - as during the last downturn - they may not last for long in either Edmonton or Calgary. With a glut of space on the market and a gloomy outlook for oil prices, this may be the year to land a towering deal in the markets of both Calgary and Edmonton.